Stories

By National Director

Before Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen became one of the most recognizable Catholic voices in American history, he was a boy from central Illinois who was formed by a devout family, vibrant parish life, and the conviction that his gifts belonged to God.

Born Peter John Sheen on May 8, 1895, in El Paso, Illinois, he was the eldest of four sons of Newton and Delia Fulton Sheen. He came to be known by his mother’s maiden name, Fulton. The family prayed the rosary daily, and his mother’s Marian devotion left a lasting mark on him.

At age 8, Fulton began serving Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Peoria. His intelligence emerged early, but his later skill as a speaker was the result of discipline. At St. Viator College in Bourbonnais, Illinois, he practiced public speaking until he became an accomplished debater and orator.

In 1917, he entered St. Paul Seminary in Minnesota. There he began the spiritual practice that would sustain him for the rest of his life: a daily Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament.

He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Peoria on September 20, 1919. Father Sheen then pursued advanced studies at The Catholic University of America and the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, where he earned a doctorate in philosophy and received the Cardinal Mercier Prize for International Philosophy.

After returning to the United States, Father Sheen spent several months at St. Patrick’s Parish in Peoria. He visited parishioners, heard confessions, and sought out Catholics who had fallen away from the Church. The assignment was brief, but it revealed something essential about him: intellectual work and pastoral ministry would never be separate. His scholarship was directed toward faith, and his preaching toward conversion.

In 1926, Father Sheen joined the faculty of The Catholic University of America. Over the next 23 years, he taught, wrote and became one of the university’s best-known professors. Invitations to preach and lecture soon carried him far beyond Washington.

Radio expanded his classroom to the nation.

In 1930, Father Sheen began hosting “The Catholic Hour” on NBC. He spoke about God, conscience, suffering, family life, human dignity, and moral responsibility at a time when Catholics still faced suspicion in parts of American society. Protestants, Jews, and people without a religious affiliation listened as well.

His gift was not merely simplifying difficult ideas. He understood them deeply enough to make them accessible. He prepared intensely, spoke without notes, and used humor to narrow the distance between himself and his audience.

Pope Pius XI gave him the title “Monsignor” in 1934. By then, Monsignor Sheen was firmly established as a national Catholic voice.

In 1950, his missionary vision received an institutional home when Monsignor Sheen was appointed National Director of The Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States. The Society for the Propagation of the Faith has long been the best known of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, since it oversees the World Mission Sunday collection; Archbishop Sheen served as National Director of all of them except the Missionary Childhood Association. The following year, he was ordained an auxiliary bishop of New York.

When “Life Is Worth Living” premiered in 1952, its format was strikingly simple. Bishop Sheen stood before a blackboard, wrote “J.M.J.”—Jesus, Mary and Joseph—at the top, and spoke directly to viewers without a visible script. Yet his presentations were never improvised. He devoted many hours to preparing each episode.

The program succeeded despite competing against some of the era’s most popular entertainers. Viewers responded to his wit and dramatic presence, but also to the seriousness with which he treated their lives. He believed ordinary people were capable of thinking deeply about truth, goodness, suffering, and eternity.

For Bishop Sheen, radio and television were not platforms for religious celebrity. They were mission territories.

During his 16 years as national director, Bishop Sheen used preaching, broadcasting, publishing, travel, and personal sacrifice to help American Catholics understand their responsibility for the universal Church. He founded MISSION Magazine, created the World Mission Rosary, and directed much of his own income toward charitable and missionary work.

That period of his life is explored more fully in the companion feature, “The Director Who Made America Missionary.”

Bishop Sheen also brought his missionary experience to the Second Vatican Council. He attended all four sessions and served on the commission responsible for missionary activity. During the debates that led to Ad Gentes, the Council’s decree on the missions, he urged the Church to identify more visibly with the poor, coordinate evangelization more effectively, and recognize that bishops were responsible not only for their own dioceses, but for the salvation of the entire world.

His interventions reflected the conviction that had guided his life: the Church could never turn inward, because her nature was to carry Christ to every people.

In 1966, Pope Paul VI appointed Bishop Sheen to lead the Diocese of Rochester, New York. His tenure lasted less than three years and included bold pastoral initiatives, concern for the poor, and some painful misjudgments. After his resignation was accepted in 1969, he received the personal title of archbishop and returned to New York City.

Retirement did not end Archbishop Sheen’s apostolate. He continued to preach, write, and speak to audiences across denominational lines. He converted the second bedroom of his apartment into a chapel and remained faithful to the daily Holy Hour begun during his seminary years.

In October 1979, only weeks before his death, Pope John Paul II embraced Archbishop Sheen at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and praised his long service to Christ and the Church.

Archbishop Sheen died December 9, 1979, in the chapel of his apartment, near the Blessed Sacrament.

It was a fitting end to a life whose visible achievements drew their strength from a hidden discipline of prayer. The priest known by millions had spent his final moments as he had spent an hour of nearly every day for more than six decades: before Christ in the Eucharist.

Blessed Fulton Sheen was a scholar, author, preacher, and pioneer of Catholic broadcasting. Yet the deepest unity of his life did not come from the media he mastered or the audiences he attracted.

It came from his priesthood.

He did not merely speak to America. He helped America listen for Christ—and look beyond itself.

Click HERE to read the full issue of MISSION Magazine where this article was featured → Read the full issue of MISSION Magazine